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Worksheet 001
Scientific Notation, Metric Prefixes and Unit Prefixes

Scientific Notation

1. Rewrite the following numbers in scientific notation, in simplest form. Include units. Use
appropriate significant figures!

a. Altitude of summit of Mt. Ka‘ala (highest point on O‘ahu): 4020 ft =

b. Altitude of summit of Mauna Kea: 13,796 ft =

c. Thickness of a human hair: 0.015 cm =

d. Wavelength of reddish light: 0.0000007 m =

e. Height of your instructor: 1.80 m =

f. Number of galaxies in the universe: 1 trillion galaxies =

g. Age of the universe in seconds: 430,000,000,000,000,000 s =

h. Volume of a hydrogen atom: 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 621 cm3 =
Powers of Ten

2. Insert the correct metric prefix abbreviations (be careful to distinguish upper case from lower case!):
10–2 m = 1__ m 109 y = 1___y 103 W = 1__ W

10–3 m = 1__ m 106 W = 1__ W 10–6 s = 1__ s

10–9 m = 1__ m 103 g = 1___g 109 bytes = 1__ B
106 Hz = 1__ Hz 10–12 s = 1__ s 1012 bytes = 1__ B

(units: m = meter; g = gram; s = second; Hz = hertz, a unit of frequency; y = year; W = watt, a unit
of power;B = byte, a unit of computer information)

3. Match each of the following length units to the distance that it is best or most frequently used to
describe:

A. Size of an ant _____ 0.1 nm = 1 Å

B. Size of a person _____ 100 nm = 1000 Å

C. Distances between neighboring stars _____ 100 µm
D. Diameter of human hair _____ 1 mm
E. Size of an atom _____ 100 cm = 1 m
F. Size of viruses and small bacteria _____ 1 km
G. Distances within our Solar System _____ 108 km
H. Distances around Oahu _____ 1013 km

4. Convert each of the following measurements into the specified units.

42.3 cm = ______________ mm 0.023 mm = ______________ cm

6.2 pm = ______________ m 14 µm = ______________ m

21 km = ______________ m 570 nm ______________ km

5. Rank the following mass measurements from smallest to largest:

11.6 mg 1021 µg 0.0000006 kg 0.31 mg

6. Convert each of the quantities to specified equivalents

353 ft to __________ m 5 cm3 to __________ m3

2.0 in to __________ mm 1000 m2/day to ________________ft2/year

7. In the Tour de France, cyclists ride 3,653.6 km over 20 days. How many miles do they go?

8. After a nice meal, perhaps you’d finish it off with a pound cake for dessert. What would the name of this
cake be in grams?
9. In the US, milk is sold by the gallon while in Italy it is sold by the liter. How many liters of milk would you
need to equal one gallon?

10. If you go to school for 180 days each year and each day is 7 hours long, how many hours are spent in
school in one year?

11. A runner competed in a 5-mile run. How many yards did she run?

12.Use your weight in pounds (while standing on the surface of the Earth) to calculate your mass in kilograms
and in grams. (1 kg weighs approx. 2.205 lb on the surface of the Earth) This is a useful thing to know,
since almost every other country in the world uses kilograms!

13.Convert the speed 1.0000 m/s [meter/second] to mi/h [miles/hour], expressing your answer to 5 significant
figures. (Useful info: 1 mile = 5280 feet exactly, and 1 inch = 2.54 cm exactly.)